Huron
by xXDaSnailXx
Summary: The Republic has lost the battle of Coruscant. A detachment of clones stationed at a garrison holds their position and awaits reinforcements. These are the recollections of the clone sergeant, CT-82115 or more known as Huron. The sergeant and his squad go through rigorous tests of survival as they defend themselves from the massive droid army. ROTS AU
1. Chapter One - Peace and Quiet

I watched as the Venator Class Republic Cruiser crashed and burned on the surface of Coruscant its contents spilling out like the entrails of a defeated beast. Before long there was another and another after that. The sky-scrapers that once towered over the planet were falling, crushing all beneath them. The sky-roads that had acted as the blood flow of the city had been torn into pieces. Scrap and shrapnel from both CIS and Republic cruisers rained down onto the capitol in a hellfire. The few remaining Arc-170 fighters scrambled from the ground barracks in a useless attempt to regain the sky. Their efforts would prove to be useless as they would be out maneuvered by the falling ash and then brought back to the surface in a ball of flame.

I stood alongside the men and watched the battle from the safety of Garrison A-45 which was a trooper garrison stationed on the lower levels of the Galactic City and miles away from the sky-scrapers and roads. Our orders were to hold the garrison and the perimeter until reinforcements arrived to assist with the ongoing defensive. There was only half a division left in the garrison. The other half was sent further into the city to assist in halting CIS advancements. However, I had enough common sense to know that they weren't coming back and that we were lucky if we would ever see another clear Coruscant sky again. I was a sergeant and had been in Garrison A-45 for nearly five months at the time. My tag is Trooper CT-82115 but my call-sign or preferred name was Huron.

The garrison had high walls, which held many defendable positions and surrounded the perimeter. It was a square that was one mile long and one mile wide with the landing pads on the outside of the walls. Inside those walls was a community we were rarely aloud out of. The Grand Republic Army provided us with every necessary to do our duties and do them well. There were five hundred of us, maybe even less than that. We had five AT-TEs to our disposal along with a mechanized squadron of AT-RTs. The division (the 83rd Republican Guard) had combat experience, in other words we were nothing special but we weren't a new batch either. We were clones and we were ready. Ever since the battle had begun – a sneak attack that presumably had intentions of kidnapping Chancellor Palpetine – we had been sending out scouts and AT-RTs. The fact was, was that the CIS hadn't made their way this far out yet. All we could do was wait.

Our commander, Commander Frey, approached me with two other soldiers by his side. His armor was white based, like all of ours, with a dark, fading purple on his forehead, shoulders, knees, and forearms. When he approached me, I was cleaning my standard issue carbine and socializing with the five men under my command who were stacking ammunition containers for at-the-ready use on the wall.

"At attention!" I barked as Commander Frey approached. The six of us stood at attention for the officer. Hands at our sides, chests out, and eyes straight while awaiting orders.

"At ease, boys." He removed his helmet, looking at me to do the same.

"Yes sir?" I removed my helmet.

"Walk with me, Huron."

"Yes sir."

Commander Frey and I had a history. I was with the 83rd from its humble beginning to its grotesque and undeserving end just as he was. We both served in many of the same battles and I had always been a loyal leader under his command.

"A runner squad of fighters has arrived." We quickly walked to the landing pads that resided on the other side of the garrison and were on the outside of the walls. "They have a word for all of the squad leaders and officers."

"Do they have news, sir? About the front?" I asked whilst looking around at the troopers who were preparing for any contact. I looked up the walls at the makeshift turret emplacements and sniper positions.

"I don't know, Huron. All I know is that something is going to happen soon and I'm going to need every trooper's full effort. Our patrols have reported that the blaster fire is getting closer. The spotters haven't seen anything from the wall, but something is coming."

We reached the squadron of runners at the landing pads. Every officer and squad leader was there, gathered in a circle. Commander Frey and I joined in. He managed to reach the runners and talk with them in a whisper. They had arrived in three ARC-170s and were average pilots. From the crowd, men asked what it was like and what was happening.

"Listen up!" A pilot stood on one of the fighters. "The Republic fleet…" He trailed off and looked at another pilot, who was nodding his head. He started back up again, "the Republic fleet has fallen back with heavy casualties."

The men, including myself, panicked at hearing this. The crowd was in an uproar. _How could they leave us?! It's desertion! They know that by leaving us they are condemning us, don't they?! They're just going to leave us for the Seps?!_ The pilots waited for the crowd to calm down before yelling over what remained of the yelling.

"Listen! Listen! The Kaminoan battle group will be here in forty-eight hours! From there, they will group up with the surviving detachment and lift the siege! We must wait until then! Stand strong, brothers!"

They left after those few words. They left us here in disarray. They probably went to every single garrison in the lower levels to warn them. It didn't matter, anyway. What mattered was getting to the men under our command and make the necessary preparations.

I found my squad of five by the gate. The members were Tanik, the technician who knew everything there was about military tech. As far as I was concerned, he was the best mechanic, electrician and tech specialist in the Republic. There was Dyson and Dodor – they were my soldiers who knew how to handle a long rifle. They had the best aim in the entire division. Brock was our heavy weapons specialist. He was plated in layers armor and carried a rioter shield that could deflect anything short of a lightsaber. He was three times the size of any clone when he had his full gear on. Finally, there was Loran – our medic. He could heal any wound or injury one could imagine. We were all so different yet we all survived off of the same programming. We all wore the same face. We were all brothers.

I approached them and told them what was happening. I told them there was no help on the way and that the entire droid army was knocking on our door. They expressed no signs of discontent. They only continued to load their weapons and adjust their armor. I did the same. The giant gate opened and closed, letting several AT-RT's inside the walls. After the gate closed, three giant horizontal bars locked across it. Two AT-TEs would later park themselves peering out at the entrance with their giant guns locked and ready. Brock stands next to me, clenching his fists as he puts his glove plates on.

"They're going to come, sir?" His voice was grave as he picked up his shield and scatter gun.

"Yeah, Brock, they are." I placed my sidearm in my holster after loading it.

"Good," he put his helmet on, "I never did like the peace and quiet."


	2. Chapter Two - The Missing Patrol

There came a point where we couldn't distinguish night from day because the ash and smolder was so thick. The smoke made it so we could no longer see the main levels of the city. The furthest building we could see was the Jedi Temple, which had been gored by the hull of a Banking Clan frigate. It had been one day since the Arc-170s had showed up and we hadn't seen them since. There were neither Republic nor CIS ships in the sky. There was only the eerie hiss of the fires and nothing else. My squad was one of three guarding the gate along with the two AT-TEs. We sat there for hours behind barricades before our next orders. Tanik approached me and handed me a hologram.

"It's the commander, sir," Tanik informed me.

"Sergeant," The commander appeared on the pad, "a patrol is yet to report back after they left this morning. They were inspecting a disturbance in the sewers below the garrison. Inspect the disturbance and find the missing patrol. A squad will take your place at the gate."

"Yes sir. We'll find them."

I got my squad together. We met up with another squad by a sewer cover. The other squad leader motioned to me for help in removing the lid. After getting it off, there was a putrid smell that penetrated our helmets.

"I thought this place smelled bad on the outside." The other squad leader coughed while waving away the smell. I looked down into the sewer. It was pitch black. All that could be heard was the stream of water.

"We've got point," I turned on my helmet's flashlight. "Flashlights on and safeties off, men. Tanik and Brok in front, Dodor and Dyson bring up the rear, Loran hold fast in the middle with me." Tanik jumped down first, followed by Brok who could barely fit with his rioter shield and scatter gun. After them, Loran and I jumped down and we were followed by Dyson and Dodor.

The flashlights illuminated the tunnel. Rats cowered away at the sight of us, running back to their dens.

"It smell like Brok's sweat gear down here," Tanik twitched at the odor.

"I won't deny it. Which way, sir?" Brok asked.

"We're going left," I told them.

The other team took the right and disappeared in our lights. We walked for several minutes down the path, slowly and cautiously.

"Wait," Dodor alarmed us, "do you hear that?"

There was the sound of generators and water falling that grew louder and louder the further we walked. There was an opening at the end of the tunnel that revealed a large room. We had heard the sounds of the water fall that drained deep down into a dark abyss. The tunnel led to a balcony that overlooked the fall and the generators that sat on the opposite side of the room. Stairs led down from the balcony where we stood – which overlooked the entire area. Down the stairs and across the room was a large door with a control panel on the wall to its left.

"That's where we go," I pointed down to the exit. "Dodor, gear up and cover our exit. Come down when I give the all-clear."

"Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I haven't had any practice in weeks." Dodor reached for his field bag and took out a long barrel attachment and a mid-ranged scope for his rifle.

"Do you think anything is on the other side?" Loran asked hesitantly. He'd always been the more precautious member of the squad.

"There's one way to find out," Brok lifted his shield.

"Alright, form up on Brock," I commanded, "keep it tight."

We walked down the stairs and to the door, checking each corner along the way. I looked back up at Dodor, who was lying prone while looking at us through the scope of his rifle with his helmet off.

"You're in my sights." Dodor reassured us over the coms.

"Tanik, it's time to unlock the mystery door," I directed. "Brok, keep a beat on the door. Dyson and Loran, search the area for any signs of the missing patrol." They nodded and headed off to opposite corners.

"Tanik, how's that door coming?"

"It's coming, sir," He continued to press his finger to the pad. "The door requires a key or passcode. Seeing as I'm not a head mechanic in the district, I'm going to have to override the system."

"I have key," Brok says. Tanik stops pressing on the security pad.

"_You_ have a key?"

"Yeah, I have a key. Hey! Dyson!" He yells, looking back at Dyson who's searching through a metal chest. Dyson looks at Brok.

"What?"

"I have a key to this door, don't I?" Brok had laughter in his voice. Dyson hesitated before catching on.

"Yeah, yeah you do have a key. Want me to get it for you?"

"Yeah, that'd be great."

"You don't have a key," Tanik said in disbelief. I stood by and watched this role out like it was a theater performance. It was good to let them entertain themselves when there was no immediate reason to believe we were in danger. If there was something that wanted to kills us, it would have opened the door.

"Yeah, come get my key." Brok stood up from his crouching position took his attention away from the entrance. Dyson walked over to Brok and grabbed his field bag. From it, Dyson removed a stick of explosives.

"Go see if it fits in the lock."

"We aren't here to destroy public property," I told them, "Tanik, take your time."

"Yes sir," he looked at the panel again, "I try to find the peaceful solution in things. Unlike –"He cut himself off. "Someone is opening the door from the other side."

"Alright, battle formations," I calmly ordered, "find cover, Brock will take center."

Brock grabs his shield and slams it down on the ground, turning on its energy field. I look back at Dodor and wave, he gives me a thumbs up. The door opened with a quick sliding motion, revealing to us nothing but more darkness. It was pitch black all the way through.

"Hold, men," I calmly order, "Dodor, you have anything in the scope?"

"No…" His voice was grim, "but there's something in there."

Loran ran behind Brock and pointed into the other room.

"There!" he hissed in a whisper, "look! There's a hand sticking out!"

A hand and forearm armor was exposed to the light. There was a soldier in there and, with any luck, the rest of the team would be in there as well and they would be alive. Except they weren't.

"He's dead," Dodor assured us over the coms, "the whole patrol is probably in there too."

The dark room was silent. From carefully approaching the doorway and looking inside, I saw the arm and the silhouette of the rest of the soldier's body. Blast marks were everywhere on him.

"Droids..." I mumbled, "The Seps are down here. Prepare to move up here to the door, Brock. Dodor, kill anything that moves in there."

"Roger that," he radioed in.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Brock picked up the shield (which was easily just as big as any of us) with his left arm and held his scatter gun in the right. Once he reached the entrance he planted his shield back on the ground and pointed his gun into the dark.

"Loran and Dyson, on me." I take my first steps into the other room and feel the other two join me on either side. We walked slowly until we got to the dead trooper. Loran bent down to check his pulse – it was nonexistent as expected.

"Dead," he confirmed, "and we will be too if we don't call this in."

"Always the commanders pet, always –"

"Quiet on the coms," Tanik commanded for me.

There was a metallic clicking at the far end of the room. Two red dots appeared in the darkness as footsteps came into play. The three of us stopped in our tracks and slowly began to walk backwards to the door.

"Supers," I knew by the sound. "Tanik and Brock, get ready to lie down some covering fire." They both gave me a "yes sir." We walked back quickly and for a moment it seemed like the super battle droids were letting us get ready. That was until, of course, the first red laser bolt flew from the darkness, briefly illuminating a tall silver droid, and missed Doyle's head by mere inches.

"Covering fire!" Brock yelled, firing off his scatter gun into the darkness.

The three of us ran back to the door. Loran took cover behind Brock while Doyle and I ran to either side of the door for cover. The red laser bolts either bounced off or perished on Brock's energy shield making a _zip zit zip _noise.

"I could use some light!" Dodor pleaded, "Your flashlights aren't really working for me!"

"On it!" Tanik stopped firing his carbine and found a breaker box on the same wall as the control panel. Lights boomed on in the other room in a matter of seconds. The lights displayed a room filled with several squads of super battle droids and the bodies of five or six clones. My eyes widened at the sight of this.

_They were going to attack us from the sewers,_ I thought. I would later discover that they were chasing civilians and soldiers who had taken refuge in the tunnels but the thought of them attacking us from underground was petrifying.

"Thanks for the lights," Dodor called in. Then, several large blue bolts rained down and created a foot wide hole in at least five super battle droids. Every time a super battle droid fell, another took its place. They were coming from several corresponding rooms. They just kept coming.

So we kept firing.

"Brock!" Loran yelled over the shooting, "Can I borrow your key?"

I could almost see Brock smile at hearing that.

"It's in my field bag!"

Loran dug out the stick of explosive and primed it to blow. He threw it into the crowd of droids and within a second there was a giant yellow flash and a deafening bang. As the floor shook, I thought we were all going to be sucked into the abyss. However, we were fine. Brock couldn't hold in his excitement and stood up from behind his shield clasping his hands together and cheering. Tanik and Doyle kept their eyes on the room and Larson went around checking us for wounds.

After calling in the deceased patrol we began heading back. We walked back up the stairs and back into the tunnel. While we walked down the stream of dirty water there was a violent shaking. Dust floated down from the ceiling. Something bad was about to happen. We had to move. The six of us ran as hard as we could to the ladder that lead to the surface before stopping. There were flickers of light in front of us and the sound of something running, no, sprinting in the water. Brock, who was in front of us, looked back. We all nodded, listening to the noise. Suddenly, Brock turned around and slammed his shield down with great intensity and that's when I knew what was coming for us.

Brock, joined by the rest of us, aimed into the darkness, "Get behind me."


	3. Chapter Three - Pushing Them Back

We all got behind Brock as quickly as we could, all of us knowing what we were about to face. As we braced, a humanoid figure sprinted from the darkness and slammed into Brock's shield with great ferocity. It knocked all of us on our backs, except Brock, who had begun helping us up.

"On your feet!" He lifted up Dyson and Tanik as I tried to get up off my knee. Everything was fuzzy. I saw my carbine on the ground, in the water. I stumbled to get up as blaster fire got louder and louder. One of the boys, maybe Loran or Tanik but I can't remember, saw that I was dismay. The trooper picked up my weapon and handed it to me.

"Shake it off, sir," he said as he joined the fight.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment before turning around to see what the men were firing at. It was nothing. They were firing off into the black tunnel.

"Hold your fire!" I commanded, still a little on edge. "Hold your fire!"

"What the hell was that?" Loran cried, "Did anyone get a good look?"

"No one did you fool," Dyson looked a Loran, "It was cloaker."

"Well how was I supposed to kn–"

"Where's Dodor?" Brock broke the two up.

"What?" Dyson panicked, "Dodor?"

"The cloaker took him," My voice was low and grave, "He's gone."

A cloaker was an assassin/skirmisher droid that stands at seven feet and was faster than a pod racer. It wasn't armed with a blaster or with shields, rather it had a sword that could parry a lightsaber. It was stronger than the six of us combined and was a master at hit-and-run tactics as we experienced. Dodor – and half of the other patrol that went down there with us – died down there in the sewers.

It was too dangerous to look for Dodor – perhaps if we had looked we would have found him just in time to save him. However, he was only one soldier and I couldn't risk the others. Despite knowing that we couldn't go back, Dyson still yelled his name until Brock practically dragged him up the ladder.

We were hoping for a break that we would never get. When we went back up to the garrison there was a firefight. The droid army was finally able to reach the lower levels. Clones stood on the wall, firing shot after shot. Several were dead from the very beginning. The droids hadn't broken through the gate but they were going to.

"Time to roll, men!" I yelled as I helped Tanik up from the manhole, "No time for a break yet. Get to the gate!"

Enemy mortar fire poured in from outside the walls. The explosions rattled the ground all around us. Our company's Lieutenant, referred to as LT, saw us coming. He was talking with two squad leaders.

"Get to your men," he dismissed the others and walked over to us. "Get to the gate. We're going to push them back, up close and personal."

"Yes sir," I turned to my men, "form up on me."

"Yes sir!"

We stood in our offensive formation. Brock was up front with his shield. Dyson – usually accompanied by Dodor – stood back and provided accurate covering fire. Tanik and I stood the left and right of Brock with Loran in between us. We lined up at the gate with at least thirty or forty other soldiers – all ready to fight. Behind us were three of the five AT-TEs. They were to provide heavy support fire and destroy any droid tanks that threatened our advance.

"I want a quick advance! Create a defensive perimeter on the block. The turrets on the walls and the AT-TEs will provide covering fire. For the Republic!" The captain of the battalion spoke from behind my squad, who was in front of the gate. The three large metal beams that reinforced the gate slid back into the wall. There was only the sound of close blaster fire and explosions. The gate made noises on the inside as the system of complex locks were undone before the gate slowly opened with a large _creeeeek!_

"Move, move, move!" I yelled.

For maybe the first second or two, we were clear. We were running down the street – that was surrounded by collapsing buildings and littered with civilian and droid bodies. Then the blaster fire came from a distance.

"Keep moving!" I ordered my men, we were running towards the fire, making sure that we stay low.

A missile screeched overhead and landed in the center of a clone squad. They all flew back, armor shattered, lives lost. We were nearing the droid line, they were but one hundred yards away from us.

"Hold up! Find cover!" I stopped my men in the center of the road. We used a crashed transport ship as cover. More clones from the garrison met up with us. We took positions on top and beside the downed transport – whose former operators had long since perished.

I aimed down the sites of my carbine and let off as many shots as I could, making sure each one counted. The droids kept to their programming and continued their advance. We stuck to our programming and held them back. From behind us approached and AT-TE, it let off several large shots that penetrated the droid line.

I lost sight of my men in the crowd of identical white armor. Though this made me weary, I somehow knew they were still alive. Blaster bolts flew from both sides nonstop. The AT-TE had taken down buildings all over the block. I spotted Loran checking the pulses of six troopers, all lined up in the road. I could tell it was him by the way he would shield his head with his arm when we ran from trooper to trooper.

"Loran!" I yelled and he looked up, "find cover!"

He looked at me and nodded but he did so too soon. A bolt penetrated his thigh and he collapsed to the ground. Before I could even get up and run to him, Brock grabbed me and threw me back.

"I've got him."

He went into the hellfire, deflecting bolts with his shield. He threw down his scattergun and threw Loran over his shoulder. I didn't go to check on him. Instead, I kept firing back into the droid advance until the firing stopped.

I couldn't tell if it were day or night when the shooting ended. I didn't know how long we had been out there in the street whether it were hours or minutes. However, I did know that we could no longer go on the offensive. We had to play it safe from now on. I made this conclusion when I saw the destroyed AT-TE and scores of dead troopers scattered on the road. Loran's wound had made him combat ineffective and he would stay at the medical bay until either help arrived or he died of his wounds. Time will tell.

As for the Tanik, Brock, Dyson, and myself, we were all fine. Dirty and tired, but fine. We all walked back to the garrison from the war-torn road with an entire division of droids destroyed.

We, the survivors, returned and the gate closed behind us. I told my men to get some rest and that their shifts on the wall will start early, Commander Frey's orders. I had lost two men today. One dead in the sewers and one wounded on the road. I felt no remorse or guilt. It was war, and brothers die in war. 


End file.
